The National Texas Longhorn Museum

Photo courtesy Texas Longhorn Trails Magazine

World Record Horns
by Alan Rogers

The current known legitimate record for a Texas Longhorn steer is that of Oak Chex. Born March 12, 2001. Oak Chex is currently owned by and in possession of the El Coyote Ranch of Kingsville, Texas. As Oak Chex is still considered a fairly young steer, there is every reason to believe he will live several more years, and his horns should continue to grow.

The width of anything is measured straight across, from one point to another, and so it is with cattle horns. To determine their width, they are always measured in a straight line, from one tip to the other.

Much has been written and published about world record steer horns but there is a huge problem associated with this topic. Tens of thousands of sets of very large cattle horns from Africa and several countries in South America have been brought into the United States since the early 1890's.  Many of these were over seven feet wide, beautiful and shapely. They, too, are now mixed in the pool of what are considered to be old Texan horns and are forever unidentifiable. These horns were mounted, sold to the public and represented as Texas Longhorns.  This was done intentionally to defraud the buyer. These horns were removed from their natural skulls and mounted onto a greatly exaggerated block of wood, which made the horns much wider than they naturally would have been. Horns of this type are scattered everywhere in the United States. Many of them are in museums who claim to own the world record Texas Longhorn steer horns, but they don't. Several museums who claim to possess these horns know their horns are African imports but refuse to acknowledge the error. Those listed in popular record books are not from Texas Longhorn cattle.

For a set of horns to be honestly measured, they must be still attached to the skull on which they grew. And to record the record for a Texas Longhorn steer, they must come from Texas Longhorn cattle. There are currently alive in the United States several Texas Longhorn steers whose horns are over 8 feet wide. 

The subject of Longhorn cattle has become very muddied as many of the cattle today have been cross-bred with African bloodlines to produce a faster, longer-growing horn. Remembering that since the early 1890's thousands of foreign horns have come into the United States, the widest set of antique (pre-1930) steer horns may be a pair said to be 8 ft 6 ins. wide. As the tips are fitted with decorative acorn finials and they are mounted on wood rather than the skull, the true width cannot be known. It's fair to say they legitimately exceeded 8 feet. A picture of them believed to have been taken in the 1930's in St. Louis is included here. Another photo of them was taken in the 1950's when the horns are thought to have been owned by Jay Kellogg of Oklahoma. More than likely these horns still exist. I doubt if these are old Texans, but if they were found to be so, they would be the known record for a set of antique steer horns. If the horns of Jay Kellogg were found not to be old Texans, then a set of horns currently in the Buckhorn Collection of San Antonio, measuring 8 feet 1 3/8 inches, would be the largest known pair of antique Texas Longhorns (see photo below).  

So for now, December 2008, the known world's record for a Texas Longhorn steer is that of Oak Chex. 

Photo of the 1930's.
Horns said to be 8 feet 6 inches.
Believed to have been owned by Jay Kellogg
of Oklahoma in the 1950's.

1928 photo of Albert Friedrich, founder and owner
of the Buckhorn Saloon-Curio Store, San Antonio,
with the horns of Old Tex.
8 feet 1 3/8 inches